Networked speaker system with LED-based wireless communication and personal identifier

ABSTRACT

A networked speaker system communicates using Li-Fi. The LEDs implementing the Li-Fi may also have modes in which they are used to map the walls of a room in which the speakers are located, detect the locations of speakers in the room, and detect and classify listeners in the room. Based on this, waveform analysis may be applied to input audio to establish equalization and delays that are optimal for the room geometry, speaker locations, and listener locations.

FIELD

The present application relates generally to networked speaker systemswith LED-based wireless communication and personal identifier.

BACKGROUND

People who enjoy high quality sound, for example in home entertainmentsystems, prefer to use multiple speakers for providing stereo, surroundsound, and other high fidelity sound.

SUMMARY

As understood herein, optimizing speaker settings for the particularroom and speaker location in that room does not lend itself to easyaccomplishment by non-technical users. As further understood herein, asingle LED-based communication system such as Li-Fi can be used formultiple purposes, including communication, determining room boundaries,locating audio speakers and listeners in the room, and determining theidentities of listeners in the room to better optimize sound for thoselisteners.

A device includes at least one computer medium that is not a transitorysignal and that comprises instructions executable by at least oneprocessor to control at least a first light emitting diode (LED)associated with at least a first audio speaker to communicate with atleast a second audio speaker using Li-Fi communication. The instructionsare executable to control the first LED to emit a detection signal notfor communication and detectable by at least one receiver fordetermining a location of at least a human listener in an enclosure inwhich the first audio speaker is located.

The device may be integral to the first speaker, or the device may bedisposed in a module separate from the first speaker and associable withthe first speaker. The device can include the processor and/or the firstLED and/or the receiver.

The instructions may be further executable to determine plural timedifferences between respective times of receipt of plural receivedreturns from respective return locations of respective detectionsignals, and respective transmission times of the respective detectionsignals. The instructions in this case may be executable to correlatethe plural time differences to corresponding distances, and to output alistener location. The instructions also may be executable to, based atleast in part on the listener location, establish at least one settingof at least one of the audio speakers. The instructions may beexecutable to output an identity of the human listener.

In another aspect, a method includes using at least a first lightemitter to communicate with a receiver using Li-Fi, and also using thefirst light emitter to detect at least a first human listener in anenclosure in which the light emitter is located.

In another aspect, a system includes plural audio speakers, at leastsome of which are associated with respective Li-Fi assemblies forcommunicating data between at least some of the audio speakers. Thesystem also includes at least one processor configured for determining,using reflections of signals from at least a first one of the Li-Fiassemblies, a location of at least one human listener of an enclosure inwhich at least some of the audio speakers are located. The processor isalso configured for, based at least in part on the location of the atleast one human listener, establishing at least one setting of at leastone of the audio speakers.

The details of the present application, both as to its structure andoperation, can be best understood in reference to the accompanyingdrawings, in which like reference numerals refer to like parts, and inwhich:

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an example centralized system;

FIG. 2 is a flow chart of example overall logic pertaining to thecentralized system in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a screen shot of an example user interface (UI) that may bepresented on a consumer electronics (CE) device to set up speakerlocation determination;

FIG. 4 is a flow chart of example logic for determining speakerlocations in a room;

FIGS. 5-7 are additional screen shots of example UIs related to speakerlocation determination;

FIG. 8 is a flow chart illustrating logic for mapping a room using Li-FiLEDs;

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of an example Li-Fi transmitter/receiver;

FIGS. 10-12 are schematic diagrams showing respective example Li-Fitransmitter/receiver layouts in a room;

FIG. 13 is a flow chart of example logic for mapping a room using LEDtransmissions from the Li-Fi LEDs;

FIG. 14 is a flow chart of example logic for multiple uses of Li-FiLEDs;

FIG. 15 shows a state diagram of various system modes as may bepresented on a user interface (UI); and

FIG. 16 is a screen shot of an example UI for the training mode.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present assignee's U.S. patent publication no. 2015/0208187 isincorporated herein by reference. Also incorporated herein by referenceare the present assignee's U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 15/019,111and 15/072,098.

Also, in addition to the instant disclosure, further details may useDecawave's ultra wide band (UWB) techniques disclosed in one or more ofthe following location determination documents, all of which areincorporated herein by reference: U.S. Pat. Nos. 9,054,790; 8,870,334;8,677,224; 8,437,432; 8,436,758; and USPPs 2008/0279307; 2012/0069868;2012/0120874. In addition to the instant disclosure, further details onaspects of the below-described rendering including up-mixing and downrendering may use the techniques in any one or more of the followingrendering documents, all of which are incorporated herein by reference:U.S. Pat. No. 7,929,708; U.S. Pat. No. 7,853,022; USPP 2007/0297519;USPP 2009/0060204; USPP 2006/0106620; and Reams, “N-Channel Rendering:Workable 3-D Audio for 4 kTV”, AES 135 White paper, New York City 2013.

This disclosure relates generally to computer ecosystems includingaspects of multiple audio speaker ecosystems. A system herein mayinclude server and client components, connected over a network such thatdata may be exchanged between the client and server components. Theclient components may include one or more computing devices that haveaudio speakers including audio speaker assemblies per se but alsoincluding speaker-bearing devices such as portable televisions (e.g.smart TVs, Internet-enabled TVs), portable computers such as laptops andtablet computers, and other mobile devices including smart phones andadditional examples discussed below. These client devices may operatewith a variety of operating environments. For example, some of theclient computers may employ, as examples, operating systems fromMicrosoft, or a Unix operating system, or operating systems produced byApple Computer or Google. These operating environments may be used toexecute one or more browsing programs, such as a browser made byMicrosoft or Google or Mozilla or other browser program that can accessweb applications hosted by the Internet servers discussed below.

Servers may include one or more processors executing instructions thatconfigure the servers to receive and transmit data over a network suchas the Internet. Or, a client and server can be connected over a localintranet or a virtual private network.

Information may be exchanged over a network between the clients andservers. To this end and for security, servers and/or clients caninclude firewalls, load balancers, temporary storages, and proxies, andother network infrastructure for reliability and security. One or moreservers may form an apparatus that implement methods of providing asecure community such as an online social website to network members.

As used herein, instructions refer to computer-implemented steps forprocessing information in the system. Instructions can be implemented insoftware, firmware or hardware and include any type of programmed stepundertaken by components of the system.

A processor may be any conventional general purpose single- ormulti-chip processor that can execute logic by means of various linessuch as address lines, data lines, and control lines and registers andshift registers. A processor may be implemented by a digital signalprocessor (DSP), for example.

Software modules described by way of the flow charts and user interfacesherein can include various sub-routines, procedures, etc. Withoutlimiting the disclosure, logic stated to be executed by a particularmodule can be redistributed to other software modules and/or combinedtogether in a single module and/or made available in a shareablelibrary.

Present principles described herein can be implemented as hardware,software, firmware, or combinations thereof; hence, illustrativecomponents, blocks, modules, circuits, and steps are set forth in termsof their functionality.

Further to what has been alluded to above, logical blocks, modules, andcircuits described below can be implemented or performed with a generalpurpose processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), a fieldprogrammable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device suchas an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), discrete gate ortransistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combinationthereof designed to perform the functions described herein. A processorcan be implemented by a controller or state machine or a combination ofcomputing devices.

The functions and methods described below, when implemented in software,can be written in an appropriate language such as but not limited to C#or C++, and can be stored on or transmitted through a computer-readablestorage medium such as a random access memory (RAM), read-only memory(ROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM),compact disk read-only memory (CD-ROM) or other optical disk storagesuch as digital versatile disc (DVD), magnetic disk storage or othermagnetic storage devices including removable thumb drives, etc. Aconnection may establish a computer-readable medium. Such connectionscan include, as examples, hard-wired cables including fiber optic andcoaxial wires and digital subscriber line (DSL) and twisted pair wires.

Components included in one embodiment can be used in other embodimentsin any appropriate combination. For example, any of the variouscomponents described herein and/or depicted in the Figures may becombined, interchanged or excluded from other embodiments.

“A system having at least one of A, B, and C” (likewise “a system havingat least one of A, B, or C” and “a system having at least one of A, B,C”) includes systems that have A alone, B alone, C alone, A and Btogether, A and C together, B and C together, and/or A, B, and Ctogether, etc.

Now specifically referring to FIG. 1, an example system 10 is shown,which may include one or more of the example devices mentioned above anddescribed further below in accordance with present principles. The firstof the example devices included in the system 10 is an example consumerelectronics (CE) device 12. The CE device 12 may be, e.g., acomputerized Internet enabled (“smart”) telephone, a tablet computer, anotebook computer, a wearable computerized device such as e.g.computerized Internet-enabled watch, a computerized Internet-enabledbracelet, other computerized Internet-enabled devices, a computerizedInternet-enabled music player, computerized Internet-enabled headphones, a computerized Internet-enabled implantable device such as animplantable skin device, etc., and even e.g. a computerizedInternet-enabled television (TV). Regardless, it is to be understoodthat the CE device 12 is configured to undertake present principles(e.g. communicate with other devices to undertake present principles,execute the logic described herein, and perform any other functionsand/or operations described herein).

Accordingly, to undertake such principles the CE device 12 can beestablished by some or all of the components shown in FIG. 1. Forexample, the CE device 12 can include one or more touch-enabled displays14, one or more speakers 16 for outputting audio in accordance withpresent principles, and at least one additional input device 18 such ase.g. an audio receiver/microphone for e.g. entering audible commands tothe CE device 12 to control the CE device 12. The example CE device 12may also include one or more network interfaces 20 for communicationover at least one network 22 such as the Internet, an WAN, an LAN, etc.under control of one or more processors 24. It is to be understood thatthe processor 24 controls the CE device 12 to undertake presentprinciples, including the other elements of the CE device 12 describedherein such as e.g. controlling the display 14 to present images thereonand receiving input therefrom. Furthermore, note the network interface20 may be, e.g., a wired or wireless modem or router, or otherappropriate interface such as, e.g., a wireless telephony transceiver,Wi-Fi transceiver, etc.

In addition to the foregoing, the CE device 12 may also include one ormore input ports 26 such as, e.g., a USB port to physically connect(e.g. using a wired connection) to another CE device and/or a headphoneport to connect headphones to the CE device 12 for presentation of audiofrom the CE device 12 to a user through the headphones. The CE device 12may further include one or more computer memories 28 such as disk-basedor solid state storage that are not transitory signals. Also in someembodiments, the CE device 12 can include a position or locationreceiver such as but not limited to a GPS receiver and/or altimeter 30that is configured to e.g. receive geographic position information fromat least one satellite and provide the information to the processor 24and/or determine an altitude at which the CE device 12 is disposed inconjunction with the processor 24. However, it is to be understood thatthat another suitable position receiver other than a GPS receiver and/oraltimeter may be used in accordance with present principles to e.g.determine the location of the CE device 12 in e.g. all three dimensions.

Continuing the description of the CE device 12, in some embodiments theCE device 12 may include one or more cameras 32 that may be, e.g., athermal imaging camera, a digital camera such as a webcam, and/or acamera integrated into the CE device 12 and controllable by theprocessor 24 to gather pictures/images and/or video in accordance withpresent principles. Also included on the CE device 12 may be a Bluetoothtransceiver 34 and other Near Field Communication (NFC) element 36 forcommunication with other devices using Bluetooth and/or NFC technology,respectively. An example NFC element can be a radio frequencyidentification (RFID) element.

Further still, the CE device 12 may include one or more motion sensors(e.g., an accelerometer, gyroscope, cyclometer, magnetic sensor,infrared (IR) motion sensors such as passive IR sensors, an opticalsensor, a speed and/or cadence sensor, a gesture sensor (e.g. forsensing gesture command), etc.) providing input to the processor 24. TheCE device 12 may include still other sensors such as e.g. one or moreclimate sensors (e.g. barometers, humidity sensors, wind sensors, lightsensors, temperature sensors, etc.) and/or one or more biometric sensorsproviding input to the processor 24. In addition to the foregoing, it isnoted that in some embodiments the CE device 12 may also include akinetic energy harvester to e.g. charge a battery (not shown) poweringthe CE device 12.

In some examples, the CE device 12 may function in connection with thebelow-described “master” or the CE device 12 itself may establish a“master”. A “master” is used to control multiple (“n”, wherein “n” is aninteger greater than one) speakers 40 in respective speaker housings,each of can have multiple drivers 41, with each driver 41 receivingsignals from a respective amplifier 42 over wired and/or wireless linksto transduce the signal into sound (the details of only a single speakershown in FIG. 1, it being understood that the other speakers 40 may besimilarly constructed). Each amplifier 42 may receive over wired and/orwireless links an analog signal that has been converted from a digitalsignal by a respective standalone or integral (with the amplifier)digital to analog converter (DAC) 44. The DACs 44 may receive, overrespective wired and/or wireless channels, digital signals from adigital signal processor (DSP) 46 or other processing circuit.

The DSP 46 may receive source selection signals over wired and/orwireless links from plural analog to digital converters (ADC) 48, whichmay in turn receive appropriate auxiliary signals and, from a controlprocessor 50 of a master control device 52, digital audio signals overwired and/or wireless links. The control processor 50 may access acomputer memory 54 such as any of those described above and may alsoaccess a network module 56 to permit wired and/or wireless communicationwith, e.g., the Internet. The control processor 50 may also access alocation module 57. The location module 57 may be implemented by a UWBmodule made by Decawave or it may be implemented using the Li-Fiprinciples discussed herein. One or more of the speakers 40 may alsohave respective location modules attached or otherwise associated withthem. As an example, the master device 52 may be implemented by an audiovideo (AV) receiver or by a digital pre-amp processor (pre-pro).

As shown in FIG. 1, the control processor 50 may also communicate witheach of the ADCs 48, DSP 46, DACs 44, and amplifiers 42 over wiredand/or wireless links. In any case, each speaker 40 can be separatelyaddressed over a network from the other speakers.

More particularly, in some embodiments, each speaker 40 may beassociated with a respective network address such as but not limited toa respective media access control (MAC) address. Thus, each speaker maybe separately addressed over a network such as the Internet. Wiredand/or wireless communication links may be established between thespeakers 40/CPU 50, CE device 12, and server 60, with the CE device 12and/or server 60 being thus able to address individual speakers, in someexamples through the CPU 50 and/or through the DSP 46 and/or throughindividual processing units associated with each individual speaker 40,as may be mounted integrally in the same housing as each individualspeaker 40.

The CE device 12 and/or control device 52 of each individual speakertrain (speaker+amplifier+DAC+DSP, for instance) may communicate overwired and/or wireless links with the Internet 22 and through theInternet 22 with one or more network servers 60. Only a single server 60is shown in FIG. 1. A server 60 may include at least one processor 62,at least one tangible computer readable storage medium 64 such asdisk-based or solid state storage, and at least one network interface 66that, under control of the processor 62, allows for communication withthe other devices of FIG. 1 over the network 22, and indeed mayfacilitate communication between servers and client devices inaccordance with present principles. Note that the network interface 66may be, e.g., a wired or wireless modem or router, Wi-Fi transceiver,Li-Fi transceiver, or other appropriate interface such as, e.g., awireless telephony transceiver.

Accordingly, in some embodiments the server 60 may be an Internetserver, may include and perform “cloud” functions such that the devicesof the system 10 may access a “cloud” environment via the server 60 inexample embodiments. In a specific example, the server 60 downloads asoftware application to the master and/or the CE device 12 for controlof the speakers 40 according to logic below. The master/CE device 12 inturn can receive certain information from the speakers 40, such as theirlocation from a real time location system (RTLS) such as but not limitedto GPS or the below-described Li-Fi, and/or the master/CE device 12 canreceive input from the user, e.g., indicating the locations of thespeakers 40 as further disclosed below. Based on these inputs at leastin part, the master/CE device 12 may execute the speaker optimizationlogic discussed below, or it may upload the inputs to a cloud server 60for processing of the optimization algorithms and return of optimizationoutputs to the CE device 12 for presentation thereof on the CE device12, and/or the cloud server 60 may establish speaker configurationsautomatically by directly communicating with the speakers 40 via theirrespective addresses, in some cases through the CE device 12. Note thatif desired, each speaker 40 may include one or more respective one ormore light emitting diode (LED) assemblies 68 implementing Li-Ficommunication to establish short-range wireless communication among thenetworked speakers shown. Also, the remote control of the user, e.g.,the CE device 12, may include one or more LED assemblies. Additional LEDassemblies 68 for the various purposes described herein may be mountedin and around an enclosure 70 as shown. Example LED arrangements arediscussed further below. An LED assembly 68 may include both LEDs andlight receivers such as photodiodes, along with appropriate controlcircuitry.

As shown, the speakers 40 are disposed in the enclosure 70 such as aroom, e.g., a living room. For purposes of disclosure, the enclosure 70has (with respect to the example orientation of the speakers shown inFIG. 1) a front wall 72, left and right side walls 74, 76, and a rearwall 78. One or more listeners 82 may occupy the enclosure 70 to listento audio from the speakers 40. One or microphones 80 may be arranged inthe enclosure for generating signals representative of sound in theenclosure 70, sending those signals via wired and/or wireless links tothe CPU 50 and/or the CE device 12 and/or the server 60. In thenon-limiting example shown, each speaker 40 supports a microphone 80, itbeing understood that the one or more microphones may be arrangedelsewhere in the system if desired.

Disclosure below may make determinations using sonic wave calculationsknown in the art, in which the acoustic waves frequencies (and theirharmonics) from each speaker, given its role as a bass speaker, a treblespeaker, a sub-woofer speaker, or other speaker characterized by havingassigned to it a particular frequency band, are computationally modeledin the enclosure 70 and the locations of constructive and destructivewave interference determined based on where the speaker is and where thewalls 72-78 are. As mentioned above, the computations may be executed,e.g., by the CE device 12 and/or by the cloud server 60 and/or master52.

As an example, a speaker may emit a band of frequencies between 20 Hzand 30 Hz, and frequencies (with their harmonics) of 20 Hz, 25 Hz, and30 Hz may be modeled to propagate in the enclosure 70 with constructiveand destructive interference locations noted and recorded. The waveinterference patterns of other speakers based on the modeled expectedfrequency assignations and the locations in the enclosure 70 of thoseother speakers may be similarly computationally modeled together torender an acoustic model for a particular speaker system physical layoutin the enclosure 70 with a particular speaker frequency assignations. Insome embodiments, reflection of sound waves from one or more of thewalls may be accounted for in determining wave interference. In otherembodiments reflection of sound waves from one or more of the walls maynot be accounted for in determining wave interference. The acousticmodel based on wave interference computations may furthermore accountfor particular speaker parameters such as but not limited toequalization (EQ). The parameters may also include delays, i.e., soundtrack delays between speakers, which result in respective wavepropagation delays relative to the waves from other speakers, whichdelays may also be accounted for in the modeling. A sound track delayrefers to the temporal delay between emitting, using respectivespeakers, parallel parts of the same soundtrack, which temporally shiftsthe waveform pattern of the corresponding speaker. The parameters canalso include volume, which defines the amplitude of the waves from aparticular speaker and thus the magnitude of constructive anddestructive interferences in the waveform. Collectively, a combinationof speaker location, frequency assignation, and parameters may beconsidered to be a “configuration”. A configuration may be establishedto optimize, according to a desired, potentially empirically-determinedstandard of optimization, acoustic wave constructive and destructiveinterference for a particular location in the enclosure 70 given thelocations of the walls and the various frequencies to be assigned to thevarious speakers. The particular location(s) may be the expected oractual location of one or more listener, and the EQs, frequencyassignations, and delays of the various speakers may be further tailoredto the desires or traits of specific individual listeners based onlistener profiles.

The configuration shown in FIG. 1 has a centralized control architecturein which the master device 52 or CE device 12 or other devicefunctioning as a master renders two channel audio into as many channelsare there are speakers in the system, providing each respective speakerwith its channel. The rendering, which produces more channels thanstereo and hence may be considered “up-mixing”, may be executed usingprinciples described in the above-referenced rendering references. FIG.2 describes the overall logic flow that may be implemented using thecentralized architecture of FIG. 1, in which most if not all of thelogic is executed by the master device.

The logic shown in FIG. 2 may be executed by one or more of the CPU 50,the CE device 12 processor 24, and the server 60 processor 62. The logicmay be executed at application boot time when a user, e.g. by means ofthe CE device 12, launches a control application, which prompts the userto energize the speaker system to energize the speakers 40.

Commencing at block 200, the processor(s) of the master determines roomdimension, the location of each speaker in the system, and number ofspeakers in the room, and the location and if desired identities of eachlistener in the room. This process is described further below. Moving toblock 202, the master selects the source of audio to be played. This maybe done responsive to user command input using, e.g., the device 12.

If the input audio is not two channel stereo, but instead is, e.g.,seven channel audio plus a subwoofer channel (denoted “7.1 audio”), atblock 204 the input audio may be down-mixed to stereo (two channel). Thedown-mixing may be executed using principles described in theabove-referenced rendering references. Other standards for down-mixingmay be used, e.g., ITU-R BS.775-3 or Recommendation 7785. Then,proceeding to block 206 the stereo audio (whether received in stereo ordown-mixed) can be up-mixed to render “N” channels, where “N” is thenumber of speakers in the system. Audio can be rendered for each speakerchannel based on the respective speaker location (i.e., perimeter,aerial, sub in the x, y, z domain). The up-mixing can be based on thecurrent speaker locations as will be explained further shortly.

Moving to block 208, the channel/speaker output levels are calibratedper description below, preferably based on primary listener location,and then at block 210 system volume is established based on, e.g., roomdimensions, number and location of speakers, etc. The user may adjustthis volume. At block 212 the master sends the respective audio channelsto the respective speakers.

Thus, it may now be appreciated that the speakers 40 do not have to bein a predefined configuration to support a specific audio configurationsuch as 5.1 or 7.1 and do not have to be disposed in the pre-definedlocations of such audio configurations, because the input audio isdown-mixed to stereo and then up-mixed into the appropriate number ofchannels for the actual locations and number of speakers.

FIG. 3 illustrates an embodiment in which the dimensions of theenclosure 70 are manually entered by the user, it being understood thatautomatic means of effecting the same outcome are set forth furtherbelow.

A user interface (UI) may be presented, e.g., on the display 14 of theCE device 12, pursuant to the logic in block 200 of FIG. 2, in the casein which speaker location determination is intended for two dimensionsonly (in the x-y, or horizontal, plane). FIG. 4 illustrates aspects oflogic that may be used with FIG. 3. An application (e.g., via Android,iOS, or URL) can be provided to the customer for use on the CE device12.

As shown at 300 in FIG. 3 and at block 400 in FIG. 4, the user can beprompted to enter the dimensions of the room 70, an outline 70′ of whichmay be presented on the CE device as shown once the user has entered thedimensions. The dimensions may be entered alpha-numerically, e.g., “15feet by 20 feet” as at 302 in FIG. 3 and/or by dragging and dropping thelines of an initial outline 70′ to conform to the size and shape of theroom 70. The application presenting the UI of FIG. 3 may provide areference origin, e.g., the southwest corner of the room. The room sizeis received from the user input at block 402 of FIG. 4.

In other embodiments discussed further below, room size and shape can bedetermined automatically. This can be done by sending measurement waves(such as Li-Fi transmissions from the LEDs) from an appropriatetransceiver on the CE device 12 and detecting returned reflections fromthe walls of the room 70, determining the distances between transmittedand received waves to be one half the time between transmission andreception times the speed of the relevant wave. Or, it may be executedusing other principles such as imaging the walls and then using imagerecognition principles to convert the images into an electronic map ofthe room.

Moving to block 404, the user may be prompted as at 304 to enter ontothe UI of FIG. 3 at least three fixed locations, in one example, theleft and right ends 306, 308 of a sound bar or TV 310 and the locationat which the user has disposed the audio system subwoofer 312. Fourfixed locations are entered for 3D rendering determinations. Entry maybe effected by touching the display 14 at the locations in the outline70′ corresponding to the requested components. In a Li-Fiimplementation, each fixed location may be associated with a respectiveLi-Fi LED 68 shown in FIG. 1 and discussed further below. The locationsare received at block 406 in FIG. 4. The user may also directly inputthe fact that, for instance, the sound bar is against a wall, so thatrendering calculations can ignore mathematically possible calculationsin the region behind the wall.

Note that only speakers determined to be in the same room may beconsidered. Other speakers in other rooms can be ignored. Whendetermining the speaker locations, it may first be decided if a 2D or 3Dapproach is to be used. This may be done by knowing how many known offixed locations have been entered. Three known locations yields a 2Dapproach (all speakers are more or less residing in a single plane).Four known locations yields a 3D approach. Note further that thedistance between the two fixed sound bar (or TV) locations may be knownby the manufacturer and input to the processor automatically as soon asthe user indicated a single location for the sound bar. In someembodiments, the subwoofer location can be input by the user by enteringthe distance from the sound bar to the subwoofer. Moreover, if a TV isused for two of the fixed locations, the TV may have two locatorsmounted on it with a predetermined distance between the locators storedin memory, similar to the sound bar. Yet again, standalone locationmarkers such as LEDs or UWB tags can be placed within the room (e.g., atthe corner of room, room boundary, and/or listening position) and thedistance from each standalone marker to the master entered into theprocessor.

When Li-Fi communication is established among the speakers in the room70, at block 408 in FIG. 4 the master device and/or CE device 12 and/orother device implements a location module according to the locationdetermination references above, determining the number of speakers inthe room 70 and their locations, and if desired presenting the speakersat the determined locations (along with the sound bar 310 and subwoofer213) as shown at 314A-D in FIG. 3. The lines 316 shown in FIG. 3illustrate communication among the speakers 310, 312, 314 and may or maynot be presented in the UI of FIG. 3.

In an example “automatic” implementation discussed in greater detailbelow, a component in the system such as the master device or CE device12 originates two-way Li-Fi ranging with the Li-Fi LEDs 68 of the fixedlocations described above. Using the results of the ranging, range anddirection to each speaker from the originating device are determinedusing triangulation and the distance-time-speed algorithm describedabove. If desired, multiple rounds of two-way ranging can be performedwith the results averaged for greater accuracy.

The two way ranging described above may be effected by causing the CEdevice 12 (or other device acting as a master for purposes of speakerlocation determination) to receive a poll message from an anchor point.The CE device 12 sends a response message to the poll message. Thesemessages can convey the identifications associated with each LED 68 ortransmitter. In this way, the number of speakers can be known.

The polling anchor point may wait a predetermined period known to the CEdevice 12 and then send a final poll message to the CE device 12, whichcan then, knowing the predetermined period from receipt of its responsemessage that the anchor point waited and the speed of the Li-Fi signals,and the time the final message was received, determine the range to theanchor point.

While FIGS. 3 and 4 are directed to finding the locations of thespeakers in two dimensions, their heights (elevations) in the room 70may also be determined for a three dimensional location output. Theheight of each speaker can be manually input by the user or determinedusing an altimeter associated with each speakers or determined byimplementing a LED 68, e.g., the CE device 12 as three integratedcircuits with respective LEDs distanced from each other by a knowndistances, enabling triangulation in three dimensions.

The primary listener location may be then determined according todiscussion below. The number of speakers and their locations in the roomare now known. Any speakers detected as above that lie outside the roommay be ignored. A GUI may be presented on the CE device of the usershowing the room and speakers therein and prompting the user to confirmthe correctness of the determined locations and room dimensions.

FIGS. 5 and 6 illustrate aspects of an implementation of the 3D locationdetermination. These figures may be presented as UIs on the CE device12. Four known locations are provided to determine the location of eachspeaker in three dimensions. In the example shown in FIG. 5, the userhas input the locations 500, 502 associated with a sound bar/TV 504 andthe location of the subwoofer 506. The user has also identified (e.g.,by touching the display 14 of the CE device 12 at the appropriatelocations) two corners 508, 510 of the room 70, preferably corners inwhich locators such as LEDs 68 have been positioned. Determination ofthe number of speakers and locations in 3D using triangulation discussedabove and the techniques described in the above-referenced locationdetermination references is then made. Note that while FIGS. 5 and 6respectively show a top view and a side view of the room 70 on thedisplay 14 in two separate images, a single 3D image composite may bepresented.

FIG. 7 illustrates yet another UI that can be presented on the CE device12 in which the user has entered, at 700, the expected location of alistener in the room 700. Or, the location 700 can be automaticallydetermined as described further below using Li-Fi transmissions. Yetagain, for purposes of up-mixing according to the rendering referencesincorporated above, a default location may be assumed, e.g., thegeometric center of the room 70, or alternatively about ⅔ of thedistance from the front of the room (where the sound bar or TV isusually located) to the rear of the room.

Once the number and locations of the speakers are known, the up mixingat block 206 may be executed using the principles discussed in theabove-referenced rendering documents. Specifically, the stereo audio(either as received stereo or resulting from down-mixing of non-stereoinput audio at block 204) is up-mixed to, as an example, N.M audio,wherein M=number of subwoofers (typically one) and N=number of speakersother than the sub-woofer. As detailed in the rendering documents, theup-mixing uses the speaker locations in the room 70 to determine whichof the “N” channels to assign to each of the respective N speakers, withthe subwoofer channel being always assigned to the subwoofer. Thelistener location 700 shown in FIG. 7 can be used to further refinechannel delay, EQ, and volume based on the speaker characteristics(parameters) to optimize the sound for the listener location.

One or more measurement microphones, such as may be established by themicrophones 80 in FIG. 1, may be used if available to further calibratethe channel characteristics. This may be made based on informationreceived from the individual speakers/CPU 50 indicating microphones areon the speakers, for example.

If measurement microphones are available, the user can be guided througha measurement routine. In one example, the user is guided to cause eachindividual speaker in the system to emit a test sound (“chirp”) that themicrophones 80 and/or microphone 18 of the CE device 12 detect andprovide representative signals thereof to the processor or processorsexecuting the logic, which, based on the test chirps, can adjust speakerparameters such as EQ, delays, and volume.

The example above uses a centralized master device to up-mix and rendereach of the “N” audio channels, sending those channels to the respectivespeakers. When wireless connections are used and bandwidth is limited, adistributed architecture may be used, in which the same stereo audiofrom a master is sent to each speaker, and each speaker renders, fromthe stereo audio, its own respective channel. Details of thisalternative architecture are set forth in the above-referenced U.S.patent application Ser. No. 15/019,111.

FIG. 8 illustrates overall logic for using the LED assemblies 68 formultiple purposes, additional details of which are disclosed inreference to FIGS. 9-16. Note that the logic described herein may beexecuted by any processor described herein and/or by any one or more ofthe processors described herein working in cooperation with each other.

At block 800, the LED assemblies 68 are used to establish Li-Ficommunication in the speaker network shown in FIG. 1. To this end, eachspeaker may include its own LED assembly 68.

Proceeding to block 802, the walls of the enclosure 70 may be mapped ordetermined using the LEDs of one or more of the LED assemblies 68. Alsoor alternatively (e.g., when the wall locations are manually input bythe user as described above), at block 804 the locations of the speakersin the enclosure 70 may be determined using LEDs of one or more of theLED assemblies 68. Also or alternatively (e.g., when the speaker and/orwall locations are manually input by the user as described above), atblock 806 LEDs of one or more of the LED assemblies 68 are used todetermine one or more locations of listeners in the enclosure 70. Theidentities of the detected listeners may also be determined. Proceedingto block 808, N-channel audio is output for play on the speakers in theenclosure 70 with configuration (EQs, delays, volume, e.g.) adjusted asappropriate to optimize acoustic wave interference at the location of atleast one listener given the locations of the walls and speakers in theenclosure 70.

FIG. 9 shows an example LED assembly 68, which may be incorporated intothe chassis of a respective speaker or housed in a module housingseparate from the speaker and mounted to or otherwise associated withthe speaker for wired and/or wireless communication between the moduleand the processing components of the speaker. A wireless transceiver 900may be employed to send and receive, e.g., IEEE 802.11 signals (such asWi-Fi) over respective antennae 902. The transceiver 900 may communicatewith one or more assembly processors 904, which may also communicatewith a wired Ethernet (IEEE 802.3). The assembly processor 904 canaccess one or more assembly memories 906 such as disk-based or solidstate storage to access instructions contained therein for executinglogic according to present principles.

A symbol modulator 908 may be controlled by the assembly processor 904to output Li-Fi communication symbols through a Li-Fi transmitter 910,which may be implemented by one or more LED. Li-Fi and other lightsignals may be received by a receiver 912 such as a photodiode andprovided through the modulator 908 to the assembly processor 904. Apower module 914 such as a battery or ac-dc converter may provide powerto appropriate components of the LED assembly 68, and a position sensor916 such as but not limited to a global positioning satellite (GPS)sensor may provide location information to the assembly processor 904.In this example, by means of the GPS information, each LED assembly 68may know its location and may signal that location, as well as thebelow-described detected wall, speaker, and listener locations relativeto the respective LED assembly location, to other LED assemblies in theenclosure 70.

Because an LED assembly may include Wi-Fi or Ethernet capability,speaker networks in different enclosures can communicate with eachother.

FIG. 10 illustrates a simplified example configuration of LED assembliesfor purposes of mapping the walls, speakers, and listeners in theenclosure 70. A transmitting LED assembly 1000 may be centrally locatedin the enclosure on a speaker, or the ceiling, or floor of theenclosure, and multiple LED assemblies 1002 (four shown) positioned onspeakers or elsewhere in the enclosure 70 to act as receivers ofreflections of light from the transmitter assembly 1000. The reflectionsmay be from the walls 1004 of the enclosure as shown. It is to beunderstood that additional receiver assemblies 1002 may be positionednear the ceiling and floor of the enclosure to also map these surfacesfor 3D applications, with the same principles discussed below applyingto determining the ceiling and floor locations.

In the example of FIG. 10, the transmitter assembly 1000 may transmitone or more measurement light beams from its LED. Each receiver mayreceive the transmitted light and assume that is has been received at aninitial receipt time to that is prior to any reflection. The next LEDlight received by the receiver at time t₁ may be assumed to be areflection from the wall closest to the receiver. To determine thedistance from the receiver to the closest wall, the following equationmay be used:D=c(t ₁ −t ₀)

where c=speed of light.

It may then be assumed that for each receiver, the distance to the wallclosest to that receiver as determined above is a midpoint of aprojected planar surface. The midpoints may be communicated to adetermination processor (which may be implemented by any of theprocessors herein) which projects respective planes from each midpoint.The projected planar surfaces will intersect each other with theintersections defining the corners of the enclosure 70 and the portionsof the projected planes within the corners defining the walls of theenclosure.

The above is but one simplified method for mapping the wall locations ofthe enclosure 70. More complex methods may be used. For example, theprocess above can be repeated multiple times to refine the walllocations. Additional reflections after time t₁ at each receiver mayalso be used to ascertain whether a receiver's initial reflection isindeed from a wall or from an intervening object. Or, the transmittingassembly 1000 may be mounted on a gimbal to send multiple transmissionsat multiple orientations such that the reflections detected by thereceivers at some orientations may be received sooner than reflectionsreceived at other orientations, with the further reflection beingassumed to be a wall and the earlier reflection assumed to be from anintervening object between the receiver and wall. Instead of a gimbal tosteer the transmitting assembly 1000, a micro-electrical mechanicalsystem (MEMS) may be used.

Yet again, in embodiments in which each LED assembly knows its locationand the locations of other assemblies by virtue of GPS information beingcommunicated between the assemblies or by other means (e.g., manuallocation entry by an installer), the locations of the assemblies may beused in the computation of wall locations to ferret out falseindications of wall locations arising from reflections from interveningobjects. Yet again, it may be assumed, for the same purpose that eachreceiver is more or less at the same distance from its closest wall asthe opposite receiver. Looking at FIG. 10, it may be assumed thatreceivers A and B are about the same distance away from their respectivewalls as each other. If receiver A indicates a distance of less than athreshold fraction of the distance indicated by receiver B, it may beinferred that the distance reported by receiver A is to an interveningobject between it and its nearest wall, and the location of its nearestwall will therefore be given by the time of receipt of a secondreflection that more closely approximates the distance reported by thereceiver B.

FIG. 11 illustrates an alternative configuration in which plural LEDassemblies 1100 may be used to map walls 1102 of the enclosure 70. Theassemblies 1100 may communicate with each other using Li-Fi to cooperateto allow one assembly to transmit a wall detection signal and determinethe wall closest to it according to principles above with the otherassemblies remaining quiescent. When an assembly has concluded its logicthe next assembly may be activated to determine the location of the wallclosest to it, and so on.

FIG. 12 illustrates yet a third non-limiting example in which a singleLED assembly 1200 may be centrally located and may be combined with aMEMS array 1202 to steer a sequence of light beams around the enclosure,with each reflection detected by the receiver of the LED assembly beingused as an indication of a wall whose distance from the LED assembly1202 is given according to the equation above.

It is to be understood that in mapping the walls as described above, theprocess may be simplified by instructing the installer to mount the LEDassemblies prior to filling the enclosure with speakers or otherintervening objects and execute the described logic. In that way theprocess is simplified as all reflections must come from thewalls/ceiling/floor of the enclosure and not from other objects. Or,each speaker may be equipped with a tag or reflector whose reflectionindicates a special reflector and, hence, a speaker, to discriminatereflections from speakers from reflections from walls. The oppositeapproach may be taken, i.e., the special reflectors with characteristicor unique reflection properties may be mounted on the walls. In thisway, the reflections obtained by any of the configurations in FIGS.10-12 can be used to map both speakers and walls simply bydiscriminating between reflections from the tags and reflections fromuntagged surfaces. Such discrimination may be effected by amplitudediscrimination, with tagged reflectors being better reflectors thanuntagged surfaces.

Yet again, a combination of manual and automatic mapping may be used.For instance, a user may be presented with a UI such as those describedabove to indicate the locations of the walls of the enclosure, withsubsequent reflections determined to have come from the walls based onthe known locations of the LED assemblies being ignored and otherreflections being inferred to be from intervening objects such aslisteners or audio speakers. Similarly, the user may use a touch displayto touch a presentation of an estimated model of the enclosure toindicate where audio speakers and/or listeners are, with reflectionsfrom those locations being ignored by the LED assemblies and otherreflections inferred to be from the walls, thereby refining the map ofthe enclosure.

FIG. 13 illustrates logic for mapping a room in which any of the LEDassembly configurations described above may be disposed. Commencing atblock 1300, at least one of the LEDs may be oriented in azimuth andelevation at an i^(th) orientation. The orientation of the LED isrecorded. Proceeding to block 1302, the LED is controlled to emit amapping pulse of light at time “i”. The time “i” is recorded. Ifdesired, multiple LEDs in respective orientations may emit respectivetest pulses at respective different visible frequencies at time “i”,with the differences in frequencies of the return reflections being usedto discriminate one pulse from another. However, for clarity thedisclosure below focuses on the processing of a signal for one LEDassembly.

Proceeding to block 1304, a light receiver, which may be substantiallyco-located with the emitting LED, receives a return signal representingthe reflection of the test pulse from a surface against which the testpulse impinges. The surface may be assumed to be a wall of the room inwhich the system is disposed, but as discussed elsewhere herein, thelogic can account for the possibility that the surface is somethingother than a wall of the room, e.g., is furniture or a speaker or aperson in the room. The signal from the receiver is sent to anappropriate one of the above-described processors, for example, whichrecords the time the return reflection was received. The difference Δtbetween time of return detection and time “i” of pulse transmission isdetermined and at block 1106 converted to an i^(th) distance using, forexample, the following algorithm:i ^(th) distance=½Δt*c,

where c=speed of light.

At block 1308 the i^(th) distance is stored and associated with theorientation (azimuth and elevation angle of the sonic axis) of theemitting LED. Moving to decision diamond 1310, it is determined whetherany further measurements are to be taken. In an example, 100 mappingmeasurements be taken (i.e., “i” increases monotonically from one to onehundred). More or fewer measurements may be used. If more measurementsare to be taken, the process moves to block 1312 to the next “i”, inwhich a different elevation and/or azimuth of the LED is used or inwhich another LED in a system of fixed LEDs of differing orientations isused and then the process loops to block 1300.

When all measurements have been taken, the process exits decisiondiamond 1310 to block 1314 to construct a map of the room. To do this,walls are assumed to be located at respective distances “i” from thelocation of the emitting LED and/or light receiver along the respectivei^(th) orientations. The walls are assumed to form a regular enclosure,so that any discontinuities such as a relatively short distance recordedbetween two relatively longer and equal distances can be removed fromthe map on the assumption that such discontinuities are not walls butrather caused by an artifact such as an intervening piece of furnitureor false return.

FIG. 14 shows additional logic that may be employed, again executed byany one or more of the processing components divulged herein. Commencingat block 140, reflections indicating locations in the same flat plane,potentially satisfying a size criteria that discriminates between largerwalls and smaller rectangular objects, are mapped as walls of theenclosure. That is, feature recognition may be used to recognize that aseries of reflections at a given receiver or receivers all lie in thesame plane, and that the plane is sufficiently large to be inferred tobe a wall. In addition or alternatively, the feature recognition may bebased on the type of reflection received. For example, it may be assumedthat a strong reflection (higher amplitude) comes from a hard speakersurface, whereas a less strong reflection comes from a matte-paintedwall. Other feature vectors may be used.

Once the walls are mapped, the logic can move to block 1402, whereinother points of reflection with a first type of return signalcharacteristic are mapped as audio speaker locations. The first type ofreturn signal characteristic may be, as discussed above, anexceptionally high amplitude as may be reflected by reflectors or tagsengaged with the audio speakers. In contrast, at block 1404 other pointsof reflection with a second type of return signal characteristic aremapped as human listener locations. The second type of return signalcharacteristic may be a relatively low amplitude reflection signal asmay be produced by a surface such as human skin that is softer than anaudio speaker or a wall.

FIG. 15 illustrates a state diagram of various system modes that may bepresented as a UI on any of the displays described herein. Acommunication mode selector 1500 may be selected to cause the LEDassemblies to function as communication devices using Li-Fi. A spatiallocation mode selector 1502 may be selected to cause the LED assembliesto enter any of the room mapping modes described earlier.

A motion detector mode selector 1504 may be selected to cause the LEDassemblies to act as motion detectors, outputting signals indicatingmotion and, hence, a need for mapping possible new spatial locations ofobjects such as people or moved audio speakers. In the motion detectormode, the LED assemblies periodically (e.g., every few milliseconds)emit pulses and differences in reflection locations from time (1) totime (2) indicate that a reflecting surface has moved between time (1)and time (2). Also, the motion detection mode can be used to establish alow power setting for one or more components in the speaker system whenno motion is detected, and to wake up and power up those components upondetecting motion. Speaker location can be re-executed upon detectingmotion.

A person recognition mode selector 1506 may be selectable to enter arecognition mode, in which a person previously classified can berecognized based on matching a signal from a wearable person-specificInternet of Things device as being co-located with LED reflections froman object in the room. Or, a training mode selector 1508 may be selectedto enter a training mode in which, for example, an image of anunrecognized person is presented on the display and the user is asked toidentify the user, as described below. Once the person has beenidentified, the identity is correlated to future reflection patternsmatching the reflection pattern of the particular previouslyunidentified listener (object having the second type of returncharacteristic in terms of FIG. 14). Each identified listener may beassociated with a personalized speaker configuration profile. Yet again,in the recognition mode an object classified as a person according toprinciples above may be recognized by virtue of imaging the object witha camera or microphone and performing facial recognition or voicerecognition to correlate the recognized listener object with anidentity.

FIG. 16 illustrates an example of this last aspect of the training mode.A UI 1600 may be presented on a display and may prompt 1602 that humanlisteners have been located as described above. In the example shown,two listeners 1604 with their approximate locations in the room aredepicted, with a prompt 1606 indicating to input the identity of a userinto a field 1608. In the event that the detected object is not alistener but rather something else, the user can so indicate byselecting “not a listener” selector 1610, in which case the system mayreclassify the object as, e.g., an audio speaker.

It will now be appreciated that the present disclosure divulges opticallocation (2D and 3D) for a single room and for whole home applicationsusing Light Fidelity (Li-Fi) LEDs. Li-Fi is a bidirectional, high-speedand fully networked wireless communication technology similar to Wi-Fi.Li-Fi technology enables Wi-Fi-like networking capability via strobingLEDs. In addition to the visible light communication, an LED is used todetermine the location of objects in a room, as well as identifyspecific objects (or people) of priority.

Network-enabled LED's may be used to detect the size and shape of aroom, to detect specific objects in a room (i.e., speakers, people,etc.), to detect how many people are in a room, as well as who they are.Through networking and computation, all the room sizes and shapes withina home can be known and mapped, specific contents in each room can beknown, as well as where, who and how many people are in a home.

In some implementations at least two or more networked LED's areprovided per room, with at least two or more networked LEDs near theceiling and another two or more LEDs at a lower elevation (i.e., sidewall or standard lamp fixture). The different elevations aid in gettingthe best room coverage (no blind spots), as well as getting a good 3Dmap (x, y, z) and localization of priority items (i.e., networkspeakers, people, etc.).

While the particular NETWORKED SPEAKER SYSTEM WITH LED-BASED WIRELESSCOMMUNICATION AND PERSONAL IDENTIFIER is herein shown and described indetail, it is to be understood that the subject matter which isencompassed by the present invention is limited only by the claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A device comprising: at least one computer mediumthat is not a transitory signal and that comprises instructionsexecutable by at least one processor to: control at least a first lightemitting diode (LED) associated with at least a first audio speakerassembly to communicate at least a first message with at least a secondaudio speaker assembly; and control the first LED to emit a detectionsignal detectable by at least one receiver configured to provide anindication of the detection signal to at least one processor which isprogrammed for determining, based on the indication including a time ofreceipt of the detection signal, a first location in an enclosure inwhich the first audio speaker is located; based on the first location,establish at least one audio setting of at least one audio speaker;determine plural time differences between respective times of receipt ofplural received returns from respective returns of respective detectionsignals, and respective transmission times of the respective detectionsignals; correlate the plural time differences to correspondingdistances; determine that first ones of the plural received returns haveamplitudes satisfying a threshold; determine that second ones of theplural received returns have amplitudes not satisfying the threshold;based at least in part on the second ones of the plural received returnsnot having amplitudes satisfying the threshold, output the firstlocation based on at least one of the plural distances associated withthe second ones of the plural received returns; and based at least inpart on the first ones of the plural received returns having amplitudessatisfying the threshold, not output the first location.
 2. The deviceof claim 1, wherein the device is integral to the first audio speakerassembly.
 3. The device of claim 1, wherein the device is disposed in amodule separate from the first audio speaker assembly and associatedwith the first audio speaker assembly.
 4. The device of claim 1,comprising the processor.
 5. The device of claim 1, comprising the firstLED.
 6. The device of claim 1, wherein the instructions are executableto: based at least in part on the first location, establish at least onesetting of at least one of the audio speakers.
 7. A method, comprising:using at least a first light emitter to communicate with a receiverusing a bidirectional wireless communication technology comprisingplural light emitting diodes (LEDs) to establish light-basedcommunication using communication symbols; using an amplitude of areturn of at least one emission from the first light emitter and atleast a time of receipt of the return to determine a first location inan enclosure in which the light emitter is located; based at least inpart on the first location, establishing at least one setting of atleast one speaker to establish a speaker configuration that directssound at the first location; determining plural time differences betweenrespective times of receipt of plural received returns from respectivereturn locations of respective detection signals, and respectivetransmission times of the respective detection signals; correlating theplural time differences to corresponding distances; determining thatfirst ones of the plural received returns have amplitudes satisfying athreshold; determining that second ones of the plural received returnshave amplitudes not satisfying the threshold; based at least in part onthe first ones of the plural received returns having amplitudessatisfying the threshold, not outputting the first location; and basedat least in part on the second ones of the plural received returns nothaving amplitudes satisfying the threshold, outputting the firstlocation.
 8. The method of claim 7, comprising using the first lightemitter to communicate with at least one speaker in a network ofspeakers.
 9. The method of claim 8, comprising outputting an identity ofa thing at the first location in the enclosure.
 10. The method of claim9, comprising integrating the first light emitter into the secondspeaker.
 11. The method of claim 9, comprising integrating the firstlight emitter into a module separate from and configured for associationwith the second speaker.
 12. A system, comprising: plural audio speakersat least some of which are associated with respective light emittingdiode (LED)-based assemblies for communicating data between at leastsome of the audio speakers; and at least one processor configured for:determining, using times of receipt of reflections of signals from atleast a first one of the assemblies, a first location of at least onefirst object in an enclosure in which at least some of the audiospeakers are located; based at least in part on the first location,establishing at least one setting of at least one of the audio speakers;identifying plural time differences between respective times of receiptof plural received returns from respective return locations ofrespective detection signals, and respective transmission times of therespective detection signals; obtaining distances from the plural timedifferences: identifying that first ones of the plural received returnshave amplitudes satisfying a threshold; identifying that second ones ofthe plural received returns have amplitudes not satisfying thethreshold: based at least in part on the first ones of the pluralreceived returns having amplitudes satisfying the threshold, notoutputting the first location; and based at least in part on the secondones of the plural received returns not having amplitudes satisfying thethreshold, outputting the first location.
 13. The system of claim 12,wherein the processor is integral to at least one of the audio speakers.14. The system of claim 12, wherein the processor is disposed in amodule separate from the audio speakers and associable with at least afirst one of the audio speakers.
 15. The system of claim 12, comprisingplural light receivers and plural light emitting diodes (LED)establishing the assemblies.
 16. The system of claim 12, wherein theprocessor is configured with instructions executable to: output anidentity of the first object at the first location.